Monday, April 06, 2009

The Great Compass Rose Heist

Meet Ricky Leonard Stegall. According to the St. Augustine Record, Ricky is wanted in connection with the recent burglary at Grampa's Music during which a number of valuable and vintage instruments were stolen. Including, as it turns out, a Compass Rose tenor. Here's the initial story.

On Saturday, the Record reported that eight of the ten stolen instruments had been recovered, found in the back of a white van (also stolen) driven by lil' Ricky here. Now presumed innocent until proven guilty and all that, but consider, dear reader, that this may be the face--not only of a ukulele thief, but far worse--of a ukulele wrecker.

It seems that the burglar had just thrown all the instruments into the van on top of one another. All the recovered instruments were damaged, including a nice hole punched into the side of the Compass Rose.

Well, here's hoping that Mr. Stegall, if convicted, will have plenty of time to learn the uke while in the slammer.